Skate or Die! (NES)

Skate or Die!

Hop on your board and take part in five extreme skate events!

The Downhill events include a normal Race and the dangerous Jam, a wild ride through the back alleys of town. Points are all that matter in Freestyle, so hit the ramp and perform as many tricks as you can. In Highjump, try to jump as high as you can. Can you earn a place in the hall of fame? If you want to take a break from racing and score-busting, grab a Bopper (pugil stick) and take on your opponent in the unique Joust! (Don't try this at home!)

You can play alone or challenge a friend in all of the events in this NES classic. So get ready for skating action like you've never seen before!

Skate or Die! Review

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Review by Darren Calvert

Skate or Die! Screenshot

Long before the Tony Hawk’s franchise ever made skateboarding games mainstream the cool kids got their kicks on Skate or Die for the NES. The premise for the game is simple you’ve got to show off your skillz to Rodney Recloose who owns the local skateboard shop in order to win respect from your peers.

The gameplay is divided into five sections: Half pipe freestyle, half pipe high jump, downhill race, downhill jam (where you get to fight an opponent!) and pool joust where you can take on other players.

Skate or Die! Screenshot

Initially the controlling your skater takes a bit of getting used to and it can feel a little sluggish. However once you get past that the gameplay isn’t half bad. There is lots of variety on offer here with the different events and playing alongside a friend makes the experience even better.

Sadly newcomers to Skate or Die are not likely to be thrilled with this as a purchase. The cumbersome controls may put some off from the start and others will likely feel the game gets repetitive much too quickly. It’s not a bad game by any means, but it has not aged well like California Games which does the multi-event sports sim with a lot more depth and replay value. For nostalgic fans only.

2/5

Average reader rating: 3.11 (9 ratings)

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Screenshots

Skate or Die! Screenshot Skate or Die! Screenshot Skate or Die! Screenshot Skate or Die! Screenshot

Skate or Die! (Video Clip)

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Have your say about Skate or Die!

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1. deggs Canada 13 Nov 2007, 23:51 GMT

i had this as a kid... i liked it at the time (in fact, it was one of those nes games that pretty much everybody had in their collection no matter how small it was). we'd spend afternoons drinking crystal pepsi, playing this, and watching "Gleaming the Cube" and "Max Headroom"...

would i buy it today? prob not. the sequel always looked kinda fun. i might give that a try if it comes out. this was entertaining for me as a kid in the 80s but to be honest, there isn't much depth to this game. that doesn't mean it isn't any good, it just means that you might get tired of it fast. the sequel looked interesting as it was more of an adventure game or something (i.e., totally different than this). this game was basically just Summer Games (C64/atari) but with skateboards...

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2. Hilanderous United States 14 Nov 2007, 04:10 GMT

Is this the same game as the arcade game "720"?

3. darthmix United States 19 Nov 2007, 18:34 GMT

No, it's not 720. It was clearly aiming for 720's market, hence the title, but this is more of a "Summer Games" type of game, i.e. a collection of discreet, unconnected events.

It actually wasn't a bad game on its own, though the different events are hit or miss. I remember playing the downhill course over and over and over again to improve my time. I got so I could get to the bottom in less that twenty seconds every try.

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4. Hilanderous United States 09 Dec 2007, 01:55 GMT

@darthmix
Thanks

5. Robert Netherlands 21 Dec 2007, 12:54 GMT

I remember the game's too hard and not much fun at all.

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6. Beau Skunk United States 21 Dec 2007, 15:02 GMT

I liked this game personally. Joust, and the downhill race were quite fun game modes. (And that one in the city, I forgot what it was called.) The "High jump" on was quite frustrating though, until I figured out you had to tape the button to go higher.
The title screen also had some good classic 8-bit electric guitar sounds.

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7. Boredom v2.2 United States 21 Dec 2007, 15:49 GMT

What's the name of that other Skateboarding game for the NES? I think i heard it's better than this one.

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8. Gravitywheel United States 01 Jan 2008, 01:20 GMT

They did port 720 to NES, and it was a lot better than Skate or Die.

the other Skateboarding titles I can think of were California Games and T&C Surf Designs. Both of those had surfing in them too.

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9. Tony United States 02 Jan 2008, 20:57 GMT

I can't wait till this comes to the US. The sequel(Skate or Die 2) is a also a quirky but fun title with some tough controls. Both are worth getting!

10. learn japanese ds Canada 10 Jan 2008, 01:53 GMT

This game was rad! Can't wait till they release it in NA!

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11. Adamant Norway 01 Feb 2008, 08:21 GMT

The game was obviously inspired by 720, but it's worth noting that while 720 is older than this, it wasn't actually ported to the NES until after this game has been released.

As others have mentioned, though, the NES port of 720 is way better than this thing. Hopefully we'll see that on the VC eventually.

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